Qwertykeys halts keyboard shipments to US over tariff costs and confusion

The keyboard company Qwertykeys has temporaily halted all shipments to the United States in response to President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods going into effect. The company says it’s working on ways to mitigate shipping costs and that the tariffs have made it so that “all keyboards from China to the U.S. are now subject to 45% tariffs at full value.”

“We are closely watching the progress of the situation and really hope that there is something else we can do other than bumping the price up,” the company wrote in a comment on Reddit.

Qwertykeys says that its delivery partner, DHL, “now requires prepayment of 50% of the declared product value as a tariff deposit, plus a $21 processing fee per package.” That would drastically raise prices for customers in the US, something Qwertykeys says is “unsustainable for both our business and customers.”

The company plans to pause shipping for 72 hours, during which it will negotiate with DHL and “alternative logistics providers” to obtain “fairer tariff-handling solutions.”

Qwertykeys, which specializes in mechanical keyboards and components, also said in a message this morning that it would be unable to send replacement parts out to customers due to the US Postal Service’s announcement that it would suspend deliver of packages from China. The Postal Service has since reversed course, but Qwertykeys hasn’t yet posted an update on its plans.

Some companies in the mechanical keyboard world ship their products directly from China to customers in the US, which was expensive even before the new tariffs were in place. Qwertykeys says it relies on suppliers in Guangdong, China and notes on Reddit that the tariffs will impact those “direct shipping methods.”

Qwertykeys and DHL did not immediately respond to requests for comment.